Discipline for Talkative Kids?

Yesterday was my second day of subbing for this school year. It was a crazy day, the teacher left very detailed and extensive plans and of course we were unable to finish a large portion of the work.

One of the problems today was that the kids were so talkative. My teacher voice came out a number of times, and it would quiet the room for a few minutes, but then the talking would start again. That is one of the things that is hard about substituting, you really have no effective disciplinary measures--especially for the minor problems. Sure if a kid is fighting or something extreme you can send them to the principal's office, but you can't send a kid to the office for talking in class. You can't talk to their parent, because substitutes have absolutely no standing in the eye of the parents. The only real tool that I have is that I will leave a note for their regular teacher. I don't know what the regular teachers do with those notes---I'm guessing often times not much. Even if the teacher does respond to the note, it is so long after the disruptive behavior occurred that the discipline can't be that effective.

Oh yeah, and with this I am talking about 1st and 2nd graders. Once you are dealing with the older grades they realize that you are powerless to stop their behavior.

What do I wish I could do for discipline as a substitute? I'm really not sure. I do take away recess on occasion---but that doesn't really help a teacher or a student. I firmly believe that students need a release for their energy. If you take away a kid's recess he/she is just going to be all the more fidgety or talkative during class the rest of the day.

Well enough about discipline. The fun stuff now. The teacher had us do an activity called interactive writing. The class writes a story and each student writes one word of the story. Their teacher had given us the title, "Our First Substitute". First the students said that I wore black pants. Then the story continued with the students coloring my face red, blue, white, black, green, and purple. I wonder what their regular teacher will think when she sees that story on the chart paper tomorrow.

It looks like my next job will be on Thursday. It will be an afternoon only job at a school that I never worked at last year, so it could be interesting.